Creating a Universal Optical Heterostructure as the foundation on which many photonic integrated circuits can be fabricated was the goal of this research. This is achieved by improving the functionality of a laser heterostructure for performing the many necessary functions of opto-electronic integrated circuits. This single heterostructure may not have a performance as good as that for a heterostructure optimized to perform a specific function, but the overall gain attained by making compromises in which many devices can work together is considered. The main functions examined are: forward bias properties of laser thresholds, reverse bias properties of modulators and detectors, and passive properties of insertion loss and routing.The final structure which was grown had a measured laser performance comparable to that of other laser structures of the same core size. Curved waveguides fabricated by wet etching had linear and bend losses which were comparable to bends fabricated on other laser heterostructures. The figures of merit for waveguide electroabsorption modulators fabricated from the structure lie between those which are based on excitons and those of Franz-Keldysh modulators. Because the single heterostructure is able to perform multiple device functions well, this makes it appropriate for OEIC applications.